


Bambola

by entanglednow



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-29
Updated: 2010-12-29
Packaged: 2017-10-14 12:14:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/149146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/entanglednow/pseuds/entanglednow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It seems only fair that Ezio bring his friend something that isn't a codex page for a change. Something Leonardo will like. Something he will appreciate in his own special, crazy, artistic way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bambola

  
Ezio thinks Leonardo has done much for him. Far more than could have been expected of him. It seems only fair that Ezio bring his friend something that isn't a codex page for a change. Something Leonardo will like. Something he will appreciate in his own special, crazy, artistic way.

He rolls the wooden figure between his fingers, watches the arms flick slowly across its torso.

"How much?" he asks the shopkeeper.

"800 florins."

Ezio can't help the way his eyebrows jerk upwards.

"For the little wooden doll?" He tips it to one side. "The arms look like they're going to fall off, it doesn’t even have a face."

"800 florins," the shopkeeper repeats. He takes the doll from Ezio's hand and resettles it carefully on the display, as if he doubts whether Ezio has the coin to be waggling it about.

Aie, things are expensive in Venezia. Ezio shakes his head and opens his purse, muttering quietly under his breath about all the pickpockets disappearing from the streets and opening up shops instead. The shopkeeper makes his money disappear with skill and then wraps the doll carefully in paper. Ezio isn't entirely sure where to put it. He doubts the delicate little piece will hold up under a sprint across the rooftops. Little arms likely to shake themselves free.

"How am I going to get you halfway across Venezia, hmm?" He packs it carefully inside his tunic, paper rustling against the linen of his shirt. "Now you stay there and don't work yourself free and break."

Through the streets it is, and Ezio's glad that it's early and there are only a few people. He still has to step out of the way of more than a few crates going to market, but he avoids the crashes of broken wood and shouts of accusation that follow him for a change. A bard sways in front of him when he turns a corner, back-stepping lithely while he strums and Ezio makes an irritated noise and pushes him out of the way with a gloved hand. The back of the man's legs thunk into a wagon and he disappears backwards into a pile of hay.

Ezio thinks they should find someone else to sing about before he starts accidentally knocking them in the canals.

He crosses the bridge with a group of people, walking slow through the middle of them, guards on either side. He doesn't think they're currently looking for him but he's willing to be cautious. He's worried that even the swiftest stop to silence one of them will be hazardous for his cargo.

He gets to Leonardo's door safely, thumps on it with the edge of his hand before walking in. Leonardo is stood with his back to Ezio, muttering something, fingers dragging across his chin in thought. He turns when the light from outside streams across the sketches pinned on the wall.

"Ezio."

"I have something for you," Ezio says with a smile. He slides a hand inside his tunic, feels the reassuring rustle of paper.

"Ah." Leonardo claps his hands together, ready for mystery. "Another codex page."

Ezio shakes his head, and draws out the paper-wrapped bundle. He can't quite decide whether to hand it over with a flourish or whether to act like it's nothing. He thinks he gets a little of both.

Leonardo gives him a curious look and carefully unwraps the paper. The doll rolls into his hand and Ezio hears him inhale in surprise.

"You remembered." Leonardo lifts it up and beams at it. "You remembered," he says again, as if surprised out of all his words. He sets the doll down on a clear section of work table and Ezio is relieved to find that it's still in one piece. Leonardo touches its little head carefully, and laughs.

"I remembered how excited you were about it." Ezio gestures towards the doll with a hand. "I meant to go back for it sooner, but I was...busy."

Leonardo is still touching its little limbs, settling them into different positions.

"Thank you, my friend, I will find you some money."

Ezio waves him off before he can more than half open a drawer.

"No, Leonardo, keep your money. It's a gift."

"Ezio," Leonardo says quietly, all weight and affection.

Ezio isn't sure what to say to that, so he shrugs, and hopes it doesn't look as awkward as it feels.

"I have nothing to give you," Leonardo says, hands spread open.

"You don't have to give me anything but the pleasure of your company," Ezio says, one hand clapping sharply into Leonardo's shoulder. Leonardo smiles under the squeeze of his hand and twitches like he's going to step forward, only to stop himself, and clear his throat instead. Ezio would not have minded being hugged at all. But Leonardo looks briefly embarrassed - before it's gone and he's smiling again.

"I know things here are expensive," Leonardo says with a nod, though Ezio doesn't think that was what he'd originally meant to say at all. What he'd _wanted_ to say.

"Killing people pays very well." Ezio speaks before he thinks about it, then frowns and rubs at the back of his neck. "That came out wrong."

"Sit, sit with me." Leonardo encourages him down onto a stool, "We will have a drink together and you can tell me what you're doing - you will tell me what you _can_ tell me of what you're doing." Leonardo corrects with a smile. Then starts rustling and clanking in one of the cupboards across the studio.

"And you will tell me what you are doing also -" Ezio pokes at the hanging contraption over his head that looks a lot like a wooden cart with a tiny staircase on top ."And what this curious thing is supposed to be, yes?"

Leonardo laughs and nods. "Yes, I will, though you may not believe me."

Ezio flicks through the jumble of sketches on the table, while Leonardo pours them wine. Buildings and people and animals, some completed, some half-finished, and some just spare lines with the potential to be things later. Most of them are of the human form. There are muscles, laid and overlaid until they're exactly right, hasty pencil sketches that nonetheless manage to feel like real life, like the people could turn at any moment and twist off of the page.

"You are really, very good, Leonardo." he says. "Better than people say, and people are very kind indeed."

Leonardo makes a noise that sounds pleased, and drifts close enough that Ezio can see his hand on the table, fingertips coloured with paint, leaving faint, soft marks on the scattered paper.

Ezio digs a little deeper, finds a set of sketches under the rest. The first is of a man who's just jumped from a balcony, caught mid-fall, arms outstretched, poised to land on the streets below. The face is familiar - more than familiar. In the second and third pictures the figure is moving through the streets, flowing out of the way of the people like liquid.

He smiles. "This one looks a little like me."

Leonardo's noise of surprise is half caught in his throat. He takes the sketches out of Ezio's hand and laughs, a little too fast, before stuffing them under some drawings of what look like wooden birds.

  



End file.
